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3 Activities to do with Dr Seuss in FLES classes

I LOVE DR SEUSS BOOKS, as do our students, but I haven't always found the best way to incorporate his national birthday celebration (March 2) in my ELEMENTARY SPANISH CLASSES, in part because many of the books contain language that can be challenging for them to understand, or at least some of my personal favorites anyway (The Lorax!!!). Well, thank goodness for Pinterest! While searching for ideas, I stumbled across a few activities in English that I knew I could modify and be perfect for foreign language classes, especially at the younger levels! Here's how I adapted them for FLES:

1) WHICH DR SEUSS BOOK DO YOU LIKE MOST? Instead of reading the books in class, capitalize on them having been read in the gen ed classroom already (or at home) and use that prior experience to practice the phrase 'I like the most' (or any and all preferences phrases!).

HAVE A SELECTION OF DR SEUSS books / titles available to 'vote' on. If you don't have the physical books, just print off images of the covers using Google Images or other search engine. Put them in a pocket chart or on the board-students 'vote' by putting their name tag under their preferred title and saying the phrase in the target language. Even young students can participate because it isn't necessary to know how to say the title in the target language- this is a great way to stay 90% in the TL! Once everyone has placed their name tag, you can count up the names and discover which book is the most popular in that class. If your students have more language skills, they can express WHY they like a particular title over another!

Want some likes/dislikes cards already made up so you don't have to? Grab ours in our shop!

2) MAKE TRUFFULA TREES: Truffula trees from The Lorax can be made just like marigolds for Days of the Dead, and stuck into a cool straw for the tree trunk. I was lucky enough to find black and white striped straws at Walmart, but if you don't have them, any fancy straw will do. You can find the instructions for making these paper flowers in my blog post here. Just have a variety of colors of tissue paper on hand that kids can choose from- this is a great project to do all in the target language!

3) PLAY MEMORAMA! I love Memory, it has endless potential for vocabulary practice, kids are familiar with how to play, and can even play independently in small groups. You can make your own Memory cards to highlight key vocabulary from Dr Seuss books, or you can grab ours in Spanish here or French here.